Reasons Recruiters shy away from using Social Media !!

Social Media often called new age search tool has proven over a period of time how innovative can sourcing get. A topic like “Why a recruiter would shy away from finding new ways to search a candidate!” might sound weird, most of us feel that Recruiters must ideally make the most of these new channels of sourcing isn’t it? Let’s first get back to basics. We were taught in management schools, “Recruitment means, Hire the Right Candidate, at the Right time, at the Right Cost and from the Right Source”. So now when we talk about the Right Source, what do we exactly mean!!

Internal Sources and External Sources. Internal Sources is nothing but recruitment from within the organization (Promotions, Transfers, Re-employment of ex-employees). And external is recruitment are from outside the organization (Job Portals, Vendors, Campus Recruitment, Employment Exchanges etc.). On one hand where we can say that this is very basic gyan but we need to understand a strong base holds pillar. Social Media comes under the Category of External source, a very powerful tool indeed. We can go on and on about the power of Social Media and how it has benefited companies and some recruiters. Yes I said “some recruiters”. So what is the reason for this small count of recruiters using it!! Isn’t company pushing their Strategic team enough to start using innovative ways of hiring!! Let’s find out the top 3 reasons recruiters run away from using Social Media:

Reason 1:

Quick turnaround time / SLA: Well we as recruiters are familiar with the term SLA. We have a standard SLA to fulfill a particular requirement. So if I need to hire people, I will look out for a sourcing channel where my SLA is shortest, what would be better than a Job portal which is filled with resumes? For example: Today if I have a Java Requirement, I would normally source from Job Portals. 10-15 mins of time invested can in turn fetch me 10 good resumes. Why would I want to turn to Social Networking sites where I will have to invest this same 15 min just to identify the Professionals and not even contact them? As there might be times when you have to wait for day’s to get connected with professionals present on Social Networking Sites (LinkedIn / Facebook / Twitter / Plaxo / Xing, etc.). SLA takes a hit hence one reason why recruiters shy away from going social. But give it a thought – a passive job seeker (from these social sites) is 100 times surer of joining your company than active job seekers (from job boards). So “time invested in Social Media sourcing is Wise investment from joining perspective”

Reason 2:

Networking skills: Hunting/ sourcing through these Social sites is not a piece of cake. What would you do the first thing if you are given a position and asked to close it only through the Social Media channels? Probably as a newbie you would just be lost in the ocean of networking sites. Sourcing Through these sites needs good Networking skills, this is not overnight job! Rather it develops over a period of time where you connect with people, keep yourself updated with tools and technologies and be pro-active to get references and network. There is a small section of recruiter who shy away from Networking! Running from networking you might never be able to make utmost use of this sourcing tool!

Reason 3:

Learning and Development Vis-à-vis KRA: As mentioned above working on these social sites is not an easy job. On practical front these skills stands Vis-à-vis our KRA. Well, let’s take this scenario, if I am given easier IT skills like Java or Mainframe to be worked upon and as a recruiter its mentioned in my KRA that I need to hire 70% through Direct sources (like job boards, walk-ins or social media) certainly I would focus on walk-in or Job board so as to meet my KRA. Also since most of skills assigned to me to be worked upon are generic and I don’t get the opportunity to explore this medium. As of result I would not allot any time for personal learning and development. Number, time constraints, business pressures make it all most difficult to concentrate on exploring various means.

So now that we know some of the problems what is the solution!! I had read it once that “A manager does not like to hear problems; he is more interested in knowing the solutions that you bring in”

Well personally speaking I can see the following solutions that can be implemented to encourage recruiters to use Social Networking Sites:

– Recruitment Manager / TL can give mixed basket of requirements to every recruiter like few vanilla and few niche requirements, this will give an opportunity to the recruiters to explore and use Social Networking sites.

– Managers can tweak the KRA’s and give 5-10% weightage to requirements closed via resumes from Social Networking sites.

– Recruiters must also ensure that they practice searching resumes on LinkedIn and other networking sites. At least half an hour to one hour to be given dedicated to Exploring new means.

– The Training team must also make sure that the recruiters are educated about these new networking sites and a details training program is arranged. Post that a feedback can be taken on how it has helped enhance their productivity.

– Recruitment Mangers must give some time to the recruiters to cope up with this new introduction of social recruitment. Meanwhile Recruiters must use all possible ways to self-initiate and learn about this tool.

– Any new methodology mastered by anyone in team must be circulated to entire team and efforts put in for SM hiring should be recognized so that others feel motivated to take it up as well.

All said and done, as a recruiter one must be open to new challenges and new sources available in the market. Recruiters who don’t get a chance to use such sites should also not shy away from exploring it as you never know in your next assignment you might have to use Social Networking sites. Also Management should agree to the fact that Social Networking Sites is no more a FAD, it’s a reality and candidates are very much active on these sites. Do let me know if you have any additional points and questions regarding this topic. Your feedback and suggestions are always welcomed.

Really interesting perspective Kunjal. I have trained a few recruitment agencies and direct recruiters to use social media to source clients. I have found that head hunters are more motivated to use social media because the quality of candidate is more important and the rewards are greater. From a business perspective there is a lot of support that communications teams could be offering direct recruiters (or agencies) which would make sourcing so much easier/time efficient.

Thanks for your views. I too agree with you about Head Hunters using it more than corporate recruiters. Again depends on what kind of requirements they are looking for. But sooner or later, they will have to start using Social Media on regular basis.

Good inputs Kunjal. What I personally feel is that it’s the lack of interest of an individual to make use of these opportunities & platform. Professionally I feel there is limited motivation from the management / managers too to use or rather increase the usage of social networking tools. Now don’t think from a recruiter’s point, think from a job seekers prospective, they too need to be proactive in searching jobs through the social networking tools (just considering Twitter and Facebook here). Its more considered to be a fun activity & a socializing tool and plays as stress buster. Recruiters cannot shy away from this as social networking is going to be an integral part of recruitment workflow.

Thanks Avinash for your valuable feedback. As u rightly mentioned that the management / managers must encourage the team to use it. As they say, change normally should start from the top. On the other hand, recruiters must also try to explore new tools as there is no harm is learning something new.